The moment the bronze gate opened, Lin Yi's pupils were filled with bands of light.
Those intertwined silver-blue light bands surged overhead like living things, each one engraved with fragments of different timelines—there was the mechanical roar when the mother nest was first formed, the blood-red lightning that tore through the dimensions for the first time by the invaders, and even a flash of the scene of Long Wu taking a fatal blow to save him in the newbie village.
"Welcome to the graveyard of time." The owl's voice no longer came from all directions, but exploded directly in the minds of the three.
Lin Yi looked up and saw a cloud of chaotic mist floating in front of him.
In the center of the fog is a semi-transparent humanoid silhouette, with compound eyes composed of millions of small screens, each playing the wails of humanity in different times and spaces—soldiers corroded by acid, cities submerged by a data deluge, and children kneeling and weeping before the ruins.
"Is this your ultimate form?" Lin Yi took a step forward, and golden light patterns cracked into tiny spatial rifts at his feet. Wherever they passed, the wailing scenes faded away as if erased by an eraser.
"The Will of Chaos." Night Owl's mist surged, and a black tentacle formed from data streams suddenly pierced towards Chu Yao's projection. "Too bad you can't even touch the hem of my garment—"
"Boss!" Long Wu's shout cut him off.
The Crimson Dragon Spear slammed into the ground, and the scales on Long Wu's neck turned blood red. The "Dragon of Annihilation" pattern on his palm was spreading all over his arm at a speed visible to the naked eye.
That was the forbidden bloodline technique he had risked half his life for in the Dragon Tomb Forbidden Land. Now, every dragon pattern was oozing golden-red blood beads. "There are seventeen defensive nodes on the left flank. I can hold out for three minutes!"
Before Lin Yi could respond, Long Wu had already rushed out.
His figure left afterimages in the band of light, and the moment he swung his spear, the dragon pattern on his entire left arm suddenly exploded into a blinding red light.
"boom--"
The alarm in the deepest part of the nest suddenly escalated.
The once stable defensive optical network was like a lake surface tossed with a boulder, unleashing a tsunami of data streams.
The owl's tentacles twisted in mid-air, and the small screens in its compound eyes went out one after another. Some even started playing images of Long Wu being bullied in the orphanage when he was a child—memories he least wanted to recall.
"A mere trick." Long Wu bit his tongue, spitting blood onto his spear.
The dragon pattern reformed along the blood droplet, this time tinged with an eerie purple. "My life was sold to the Time Legion long ago!"
His roar shattered the light band, and all seventeen defensive nodes simultaneously exploded into blue sparks.
But the price also came into play—Long Wu's right shoulder suddenly caved in, revealing white bone fragments; the dragon-patterned explosion had even cracked his spine.
"Long Wu!" A garbled message flashed across Chu Yao's projection as her fingertips rapidly tapped on a virtual keyboard visible only to herself. "Your vital signs are down to 18%. Log out immediately—"
"Shut up!" Long Wu staggered and knelt on one knee, but still pointed his spear at the nearest defensive node. "If you two dare to let me take this beating for nothing, I'll skin you alive even if I'm reduced to ashes!"
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He could clearly sense the intense pain surging within Long Wu's soul, yet he could also touch something even hotter than the pain—it was the rainy night in the beginner village when Long Wu stuffed the last compressed biscuit into his hands and said, "Brother, a steamed bun is enough"; it was the annihilation cannon that Long Wu shielded him with his body in the interdimensional battlefield last month.
"Hold on." Lin Yi said two words in the direction of Long Wu, and when he turned his head, the golden light patterns in his eyes had already connected into a galaxy. "Chu Yao, your progress."
“37%...no, 42%!” Pale golden code began to seep from Chu Yao’s hair, a sign that she had forcibly merged with Lin Yi’s faith power. “Night Owl’s control protocol is rejecting me, but he was distracted by Long Wu just now, giving me an opportunity! Look, this dark purple code is his chaotic core, and I am using your faith frequency…”
Her voice suddenly rose, and the virtual keyboard in the projection transformed into millions of points of light, all plunging into the chaotic mist of the Night Owl: "It's done! Now 60% of the Mother Nest's defense system recognizes me as its master, and the rest..."
"I'll take care of the rest."
Lin Yi raised his hand.
The spacetime rift in his palm suddenly expanded into a portal of light as tall as a person. What poured out was not ordinary spacetime turbulence, but genuine "time sand"—each grain of which was wrapped with the power of faith he had accumulated in various timelines.
The owl's compound eye developed a crack for the first time.
His mist began to thin, revealing the black crystal suspended below—the core of the Destiny Source Core: "You can't... these low-level beliefs..."
"Low-level?" Another golden torrent surged from Lin Yi's portal. It was the warmth of the palms of the elders of the Reality Alliance when they handed over the ancient martial arts manuals; it was the sparks in the eyes of the soldiers of the Other Dimension Resistance Army when they pointed their weapons at the Mother Nest; it was the resounding voice of the members of the Time Legion when they shouted "Time and Space Dominator, Reverse the Universe" before each charge.
These "memory anchors" that he had carefully stored in the spacetime rift have now all materialized, like the sharpest spears, piercing into the chaotic mist of the night owl.
"Their faith contains a power purer than your chaos." Lin Yi walked step by step toward the Core of Destiny, each step solidifying the light beneath his feet into tangible steps. "Because they don't believe in gods, they believe in—"
"They are our comrades!" Long Wu's roar came from behind.
He had stood up at some point, the sound of his spine cracking clear as shattered glass, but his spear was still firmly pointed at the last defensive point. "Boss, I can't hold on anymore... but you fucking have to win for me!"
After saying those words, he finally collapsed in a pool of blood.
But his dragon mark did not fade; instead, it crawled down the ground to Lin Yi's feet and left a crimson dragon mark on the steps.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly became incredibly clear, and her eyes no longer held data streams, but genuine tears: "Privilege takeover complete! The protective layer of the Destiny Source Core is being peeled away, three seconds... two seconds..."
The outer shell of the black crystal shattered instantly.
Lin Yi saw silver-purple light flowing inside the crystal, which was the starting point of all timelines and the core of Night Owl's consciousness.
"No—!" The Night Owl's mist contracted frantically, trying to re-envelop the crystal. "Even if you get the source core, it's useless, it will..."
"What will happen?" Lin Yi's fingertips had already touched the crystal.
Golden light patterns spread along the point of contact, drilling into the source core like a living thing. "Let me see what secrets you're hiding."
Just then, the entire space suddenly trembled violently.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply—he sensed that at the boundary between the Mother Nest and reality, a familiar mental fluctuation was tearing through space.
The emotion in his voice carried guilt, resolve, and a hint of relief—it was so much like...
"Xuanmingzi?" he murmured softly.
The crystal was burning hot in his palm, but his attention was already drawn to the fluctuation.
He knew it was an old friend, preparing to use his last shred of consciousness to open the final door for him.
The owl's roar continued, but Lin Yi could no longer hear it.
He looked at Long Wu's blood-stained spear, at Chu Yao's tear-streaked projection, and at the source core in his palm being purified by the power of faith, and suddenly smiled.
“Three seconds later,” he said to the air, “I’ll take whatever door you want to open.”
Suddenly, all the light bands in the space pointed in the same direction.
In a corner unseen by Lin Yi, a semi-transparent figure was coalescing, holding a key made of fragments of time in his hand.
The frequency of the spacetime tremor suddenly increased, like a heartbeat that had been sped up tenfold.
The source core crystal in Lin Yi's palm suddenly became hot, so hot that his knuckles turned white, but he couldn't bear to loosen his grip even a little.
That familiar mental fluctuation was almost within reach; he could even sense the intertwined guilt and relief within it—it was Xuan Mingzi, the one who had once coldly observed the trials of civilization as the game's mastermind, now paving the way for him with his last vestiges of consciousness.
"It's you." Lin Yi looked up and saw a semi-transparent figure appear from the band of light.
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe was no longer the spotless moon white, but rather like old silk eroded by time, with tiny starlight seeping out from every fold.
The key in his hand, made of fragments of time, was humming. The key teeth were engraved with ancient civilization runes that Lin Yi couldn't understand, but they inexplicably reminded him of the crimson dragon mark on Long Wu's spear and the golden code in Chu Yao's projection.
"Long time no see, Master of Time and Space." Xuan Mingzi's voice was like an ancient bell steeped in the morning mist, carrying a touch of hoarse gentleness. "I was once an enforcer of order, witnessing the end of seventy-two trials of civilization. Those eliminated civilizations eventually turned into dust in the torrent of data..." His fingertips lightly traced the key, and a fragment representing the annihilation of a certain human civilization suddenly shattered. "Until I met you, I realized that beyond order, there are things even more precious."
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He recalled the fleeting pain in Xuanmingzi's eyes three months ago in the Virtual Temple when Xuanmingzi removed the restrictions on his "Time and Space Dominator" profession.
It turns out that from that time onward, this seemingly indifferent existence was paving the way for today.
“This is the key to the Time-Space Corridor.” Xuan Mingzi pressed the key onto the Source Core Crystal. The fragment of time collided with the silver-purple light, bursting forth with dazzling blue-white sparks. “It can take you to the deepest part of the Source Core—there lies Night Owl’s sea of consciousness, the starting point of all timelines.” His figure began to fade, and the edges of his Daoist robe showed the snow-like noise characteristic of data streams. “But opening the corridor requires the sacrifice of a complete consciousness…”
"Are you crazy?" Lin Yi instinctively tried to grab him, but only touched a void of light and mist. "In your current state, this is equivalent to..."
"To ashes." Xuan Mingzi smiled, a light gentler than starlight shimmering in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. "I have crushed too many hopes with the coldest rules, and now I can become the cornerstone for changing those rules..." His voice was suddenly cut off by the turbulent flow of spacetime, and a rainbow-colored crack appeared at the connection between the key and the source core. "Hurry! The chaotic will of the Night Owl is eroding the entrance to the corridor. It will be too late if we wait any longer!"
As Lin Yi gazed at his gradually transparent face, he suddenly recalled the old locust tree outside the newbie village that had been struck by lightning—at that time, he had squatted in front of the tree stump, listening to the system notification that "the survival rate of civilization is less than 3%", and Xuan Mingzi's voice was like an ice pick falling from the clouds: "Survival of the fittest, this is the law of the universe."
But at this moment, this being who once upheld the laws is using its last breath to pave a path to survival for the "unfit".
"Wait for me to come back," Lin Yi said to the figure that was about to disappear.
He didn't know if Xuanmingzi could hear him, but he saw the other's lips move, clearly saying, "I believe you."
The next second, the crack in the time-space corridor swallowed him up like a giant maw.
The scene before my eyes suddenly distorted.
Lin Yi felt as if he had been stuffed into a glass tube made of fragments of time. To his left was a rainy night in 2035 when the game arrived, and to his right was the ruins of an interdimensional war three hundred years later. Above his head floated the image of Long Wu being bullied in the orphanage, and at his feet was the panic of Chu Yao when she first gained human expressions.
"You think you can win like this?" The owl's roar pierced through the spatial turbulence, and chaotic mist surged in from all directions. "Hidden within the source core is something even advanced civilizations dare not touch..."
"Is it fear?" Lin Yi's golden light patterns exploded around him, scorching black holes in the approaching mist. "Fear that humanity's faith can break the rules you've set? Fear that we will prove that civilization is not data, but—" He pressed his fingertips to his brow, and all his memories of his teammates suddenly materialized: Long Wu's blood-stained spear, Chu Yao's tearful eyes, the ancient martial arts manual handed to him by the elder of the Reality Alliance, the weapon pointed at the Mother Nest by the alien soldier, "They are living, breathing lives that feel pain and would fight to the death for each other!"
The spacetime corridor trembled violently, and the time fragments that were originally used to trap consciousness suddenly changed direction and surged towards Lin Yi like magnetized iron filings.
His figure shone brighter and brighter among the fragments, and even the source core crystal began to emit a golden light that resonated with him—a light imbued with the power of faith.
"No!" Night Owl's compound eyes shattered completely, and dark green blood beads seeped from the chaotic mist. "You have no idea what's inside the source core... that is..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Yi had already broken through the end of the corridor.
The sight of the source core made him gasp for breath.
There is no space, no time, only a long river shimmering with a deep blue light—the river of time, where a complete universe is curled up in every wave.
In the middle of the long river, the Night Owl's consciousness floated in physical form. His body was composed of countless distorted human faces, each face repeating the mouth shapes of "despair," "collapse," and "give up."
“Welcome to the source of destiny.” The Night Owl’s voice was no longer as manic as before, but terrifyingly calm. “Here, your faith is nothing more than a spark that can be extinguished at any moment.” He raised his hand, and the long river suddenly surged with huge waves, the universe within the waves instantly collapsing into a black hole. “And my chaos is an abyss that can devour everything.”
Lin Yi remained silent.
He gazed at the collapsing universes, recalling Long Wu's roar before he fell, the tearful light in Chu Yao's projection, and Xuan Mingzi's smile before he vanished—these fragments coalesced into a flame deep within his soul, hotter than any mythical skill.
"Give it a try?" He tapped his fingertip lightly, and the source core crystal in his palm suddenly exploded into thousands of golden rays.
The golden rays did not spread; instead, they precisely pierced into every wave, rekindling starlight at the edge of the collapsing black hole. "My faith is in these lives that burn for one another. They may be small, they may be fragile, but they will never be swallowed by the abyss."
The river of time surges violently.
Cracks began to appear on the Night Owl's face and body, and from each crack seeped a light that Lin Yi recognized—the ancient martial arts heritage of the Reality Alliance, the battle song of the Interdimensional Resistance Army, and the bugle call of the Time Legion.
“This can’t be…” Night Owl’s voice trembled with broken sobs, “They should have collapsed in despair…”
"Because they don't believe in God." Lin Yi walked step by step towards the center of the river of time, with golden light paving a long staircase leading to the sky beneath his feet. "What they believe in is that even if they fall, someone else will take their place."
Before he could finish speaking, his fist had already pierced through Night Owl's chest.
The chaotic mist dissipated at a visible speed, and the owl's consciousness began to decompose into the most primitive data particles.
Just when Lin Yi thought the outcome was decided, the river of time suddenly surged with even more turbulent waves than before.
His pupils contracted sharply—atop the crest of the wave floated a purple flame identical to the source core crystal in his palm.
What solidified his blood even more was that deep within the flame, there was a face exactly like his own.
That face was expressionless, yet it sent a tremor through Lin Yi's soul.
He could even hear some ancient whisper, piercing through from the end of time: "You think this is the end?"
The spark of destiny suddenly trembled violently, tearing a new rift in the river of time.
The aura emanating from the crack was so familiar that it reminded Lin Yi of his reflection in the mirror, yet it felt as strange as a star trail he had never set foot on before.
He stared at the crack, then at the owl that was about to completely vanish, and suddenly laughed.
"It seems the story has only just begun."
The waves of time drowned out his voice.
But deep within the crack, another golden light pattern was slowly opening its eyes.
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